Picture this – You are on an aeroplane that has two pilots each controlling a different joystick. When one pulls to one side and the other in the opposite direction, the plane veers off course leaving the fate of the plane in the air.
However, when they cooperate, speak plainly, and have faith in one another’s judgement, the plane rides calmly through choppy skies and gets you to your destination without incident. This is the benefit—and the difficulty—of working in a shared leadership organisation.
The Duality of Shared Leadership
As leaders in shared situations, you frequently come across situations of conflict or compromise. Conflicting opinions, conflicting demands, conflicting decisions – to share is to invite conflict.
But to share is to also collaborate, to create, to build, and to trust. A fine line splits the two forms of sharing, and that line is that of relationships.
The Role of Leader Relationships
These relationships are not only limited to leaders’ bonds with their teams but also includes the relationship between the leaders themselves.
Often, these shared leadership situations come from friends going into business together and that adds an extra dynamic of benefits and risks into the leader relationships.
Relationships between the two leaders is perhaps more important than one between the leader and their teams.
When leaders build a solid bridge between themselves, it creates a stable foundation for the entire company to thrive in.
Imagine being an employee in a company where the shared leaders appear to be in conflict or if their communication seems disjointed. They give you differing tasks and offer conflicting advice.
Conversely, imagine if they showcased respect, trust, and flawless communication. They give you tasks that align with each other and offer you ideas the other would agree with.
Where do you think you would feel better working? Where do you think you would feel more confused?
Thus, it has become imperative for leaders to have what is known as a high “Dual-Leader Exchange” (DLX) in research. In essence, studies have found that leaders who have strong relationships built amongst each other are able to impart a feeling of comfort and trust to their employees.
As the employees feel more comfortable in their jobs, they perform better and think lesser about the conflicts that may arise due to the presence of multiple leaders (Sahlmueller et al., 2022).
However, its success depended heavily on strong relationships and effective communication among the leaders.
The Effects of Trust and Transparency
Consequently then, comes the question of how such a relationship can be built. It goes without saying that a relationship can only be strong if it is built on the foundation of trust.
As shared leaders, it is inevitable that they would have to compromise every now and again. However, this compromise must be dealt with in a way that seems like a positive interaction and not one that looks to employees like a fight or argument.
This positivity – with which a problem is solved – showcases trust to employees, which translates to trust in leadership from employees (Kim et al., 2018).
When leaders:
- visibly collaborate,
- share information freely,
- and present a united front.
This reassures employees that they won’t be caught in the middle of leadership conflicts.
One key way leaders can foster this trust is through transparency.
This transparency also opens up channels for more effective problem-solving. If employees see that their leaders work well together, they are more likely to bring up issues or conflicts that arise from their dual reporting structure, trusting that the leaders can address them collaboratively.
Our brains are wired to seek safety and predictability. When we perceive conflict or inconsistency in our environment—say, between our leaders—our brains produce cortisol, the stress hormone (Doom et al., 2018). This physiological response can hinder our ability to think clearly and perform at our best.
The Importance of Individual Relationships
Now, we shift our focus to creating this feeling of safety. While the leader-to-leader relationship is critical, it doesn’t negate the need for strong individual relationships between each leader and their employees.
When employees have good relationships with both of their leaders, they feel safe and less torn between conflicting duties (Sahlmuller et al, 2022). Researchers call these good relationships as high-quality “Leader-Member Exchange”.
Not surprisingly, research suggests that having similarly strong relationships with both leaders is ideal. Large discrepancies in relationship quality between the two leaders can increase an employee’s confusion.
Basically, if workers see their bosses getting along and trusting each other, they feel more comfortable even if they’re not best buddies with both the leaders themselves.
Diagrammatic representation of trust and leadership based on the study by Sahlmuller and colleagues (2022)
As an employee……”All I need to do is trust that they trust each other”
In other words, shared leadership isn’t just about splitting the tasks – it’s about
- doubling the trust,
- doubling the transparency,
- and doubling the teamwork.
Therefore, it is crucial to develop and sustain relationships at all organisational levels to optimise the use of shared leadership.
Ensuring that teamwork at the top becomes the norm and not the exception increases business performance, reduces confusion, and helps boost the effectiveness of your shared leadership.
To find out more about how we can help your leadership team collaborate and coordinate better and reduce between leader conflict, contact us on rebecca@workbrighter.co.uk.
Doom, J. R., Cook, S. H., Sturza, J., Kaciroti, N., Gearhardt, A. N., Vazquez, D. M., Lumeng, J. C., & Miller, A. L. (2018). Family conflict, chaos, and negative life events predict cortisol activity in low‐income children. Developmental Psychobiology, 60(4), 364–379. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21602
Kim, T. Y., Wang, J., & Chen, J. (2018). Mutual trust between leader and subordinate and employee outcomes. Journal of Business Ethics, 149, 945-958.
Sahlmueller, B., Van Quaquebeke, N., Giessner, S. R., & van Knippenberg, D. (2022). Dual leadership in the matrix: effects of leader-member exchange (LMX) and dual-leader exchange (DLX) on role conflict and dual leadership effectiveness. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 29(3), 270-288.
Friday 4 October 2024 12:15pm
Join us for a free webinar exploring how a leadership team running a business together can build and retain solid relationships. How to build and maintain solid and effective relationships with your business partners?